“Only I Am You, Then I Became You” marks the first solo exhibition of artist Jiajia Qi in Thailand. Supported by the Mondriaan Fonds, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, and the Embassy of the Netherlands in Thailand, the exhibition presents a curated selection of both her earlier works and newly conceived pieces. This exhibition builds upon her ongoing inquiry into “site-specific” art, a trajectory of creative investigation that interrogates the dynamic interrelations between spatial context, environmental conditions, and individual experience.

Jiajia's practice is marked by a heightened sensitivity to the nuances of these interactions, with concepts of “fluidity,” “attachment,” and “ambiguity” central to her artistic lexicon. These thematic underpinnings, deeply embedded in her work, reflect the complex intersection of her personal life experiences and broader existential concerns, while simultaneously offering a critique of fixed notions of identity, space, and perception.

This exhibition is deeply informed by the concept of “nomadic thought” as developed by French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. They posit that the nomad exists beyond the confines of fixed history, with their spatiality unshackled from the rigid constructs of nations and institutions, instead unfolding within an ongoing process of “becoming.” The exhibition adopts this nomadic framework as its point of departure, endeavoring to disrupt linear narratives and transcend the interwoven structures of time and space.

It aims to reimagine the relational dynamics between the self and the world. By stripping away prescriptive guidance and rigid frameworks, the exhibition creates an open intellectual space. It interrogates the hegemonic positions of “fixity” and “order” within the art world, urging the viewer to engage with the work through sensory experience rather than rational analysis, particularly through their attunement to subtle, ambiguous, and contradictory perceptual details. These nuanced, uncertain presences act as gateways to profound reflection on existence, language, and meaning.

At its core, the exhibition functions as an exercise in critical introspection: how do the socio-historical contexts and cultural paradigms we inhabit shape our perception of reality? The works presented are neither direct representations of reality nor straightforward expressions of objects, but rather they function as ongoing revelations of the complexities and absurdities that lie beneath the surface. In doing so, they prompt the audience to move beyond superficial understandings and to enter a more profound space of experiential engagement and reflection.

The artist maintains her consistent methodology, which involves meticulous observation, measurement, and testing of the exhibition space, allowing the works to emerge in a manner that feels both “naturally emergent” and yet inherently heterogeneous.

These works are not final statements, but rather beginnings—like pieces on a Go board, they resist fixed identities, deriving meaning solely from their contextual placement. Although each work operates independently, they are interconnected horizontally, embodying a “nomadic” mode of existence—shifting between fixed points, infiltrating the unknown through cracks and fissures, and eroding existing structures and boundaries.

They create their own centers while extending toward the other, engendering a state of being that is neither entirely self-contained nor fully external. Through this process of interaction, fusion, and dissolution, the works collectively construct a fluid, traceless network, and also invites us to shift from interpretation to sensation, from certainty to becoming, and through the deconstruction of the familiar, to explore a nomadic freedom and the continuous potential for generation.

“Only I Am You, Then I Became You” will be on view from 25 September to 8 November 2025 on the 2nd and 3rd floor of SAC Gallery. You are warmly invited to the opening reception on Thursday 25 September 2025, from 6–9 PM. Admission is free, and visitors will have the opportunity to meet the artist, curator, and fellow contemporary art enthusiasts.